It is nice to see Aruba finally got around to making sure that their runways were safe for tourists as airplanes land and take off. Just how many planes have taken off and landed from Reina Beatrix airport with what would have been the shorter runway?

“The most important objective was extending the runways, so that extra safety zones are created. These safety zones are for aircrafts that have trouble during take off and landing”

Safety zones for aircrafts that have trouble during take off and landing? Important objective? If it was so important, why was this not done years ago, like say the 1980’s?

Longer runways ready

ORANJESTAD – The project for safer runways of the Reina Beatrix airport is officially complete. The runways are now 60 meters longer and better illuminated. The total cost of this project called Runway End Safety Area & Safety Approach Lighting System is more than 13 million florins. Aruba Airport Authority (AAA) started with this project in November of 2007. “The most important objective was extending the runways, so that extra safety zones are created. These safety zones are for aircrafts that have trouble during take off and landing”, said Peter Steinmetz, director of AAA. (Amigoe: July 1, 2008)

Put your head between your
legs and do some things,
before it’s time to
say goodbye.

Your pinball game is over!

JUSTICE 4 NATALEE

jim on
July 3rd, 2008 9:30 pm

b s

Allan on
July 3rd, 2008 10:16 pm

Aruba is still crime infested who cares about the airport!

Ray on
July 3rd, 2008 10:26 pm

Thats cool,now they have the runway the have been needing for years and now the airlines are cutting flight. They have been flying off of too short of a runway for years.

BOYCOTT ARUBA JUSTICE FOR NATALEE

Von Kitty Kat on
July 4th, 2008 9:59 am

Happy 4th of July everyone. Have a great time

Gabriel Leo on
July 5th, 2008 6:56 am

Hey…If that’s where you want go you should ask your US-Flights THAT QUESTION….Ask them what were they thinking to land on a runway which was said to be unsafe!
RUNN PEOPLE RUN to your computers and mail all of those airlines for being dumb and stupid!
Because after all they are just airplanes with non-professional pilots who have never gotten schooling and don’t even care if a runways is safe enough! Right?!?
And to my good friend Brie (the French Cheese) for the so called low season (which is right now) the US-airliners sure know how to cut back on flights to Aruba, unless cutting back means adding more hahaha…..and you say fall (beginning of high season) they will be cutbacks?
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and give you big thumbs up for that post! :D
GREEEEEEEETZZZZZ

Aruba’s airport was approx 9000 feet in length prior to the length addition.

Hartsfield (ATL, where 747s, L1011s in the past, and other heavies land) has three of its five runways that are no longer than 9001 feet.

Heck, Chicago Midway’s (used by SWA and others)LONGEST runway measures in at slightly over 6400 feet in length.

Sorry, but the Beatrix addition is a non-issue.

dotratc on
July 5th, 2008 1:11 pm

Jezerbell is exactly right. The runway at Reina Beatrix was lengthened from 9,000 to approx. 10,000 feet. It was never “unsafe.” Jumbo jets have been landing and taking off from Aruba for as long as jumbo jets have been in service.

Reina Beatrix is one of the most modern and well-equipped airports in the region. I understand the “hate Aruba at all costs” mentality but this one is a non-starter.
________
SM: Hate??? … its merely informational.

There’s a story somewhere on this forum that American Airlines was threatening, a while back, to drop its flight to Aruba from Puerto Rico because the airport and air traffic control were so incompetent that the safety of passengers was threatened.

I somehow doubt that a longer runway will make much difference. Too bad that Aruba is determined to sustain its cover-up in Natalee’s case … too bad for Aruba, anyway.

This story came out Wednesday … clearly Aruba knows that its name is less than mud in our eyes.

So it’s trying to save marketing dollars and help push the Caribbean as a kind of generic brand.

That way, it will get at least some of the crumbs.
And for many people, not hearing the name “Aruba” will mean they won’t be reminded of Natalee Holloway and the cover-up. At least, that’s what Aruba hopes. We will not let up on our efforts.

Their tourism-driven economies battered by a stagnant U.S. economy, expensive jet fuel and airline cutbacks, Caribbean leaders Wednesday agreed to launch a $60 million campaign to market their sun-baked region as one tourism destination.

At the same time, leaders have given the nod to regional tourism ministers to lobby U.S. officials to remove the $40 departure tax Americans pay when visiting the Caribbean, expand the duty free allowance and the number of U.S. pre-clearance immigration and customs hubs to include other Caribbean islands.

Currently, only Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, Aruba and Bermuda allow passengers to clear immigration and customs there rather than at U.S. airports.

”We are seeing some things every single day that is telling us this (U.S.) recession is deepening,” said Allen Chastanet, St. Lucia’s tourism minister who serves as chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, the administrative body for Caribbean tourism.

“We believe that if the Caribbean is proactive in its marketing campaign, it will go a long ways in being able to make sure the flights that are left, we fan fill them and that we show the world we can produce the kind of yield to overcome the price hikes that we have.”

The idea of a unified strategic Caribbean campaign is the brainchild of regional hotel owners, tourism ministers and marketing experts who believe that the current economic reality warrants a unified branding effort. It can begin as soon as December or the beginning of next year.

”Branding is not just about an advertising campaign,” said Chastanet. “It’s not just about an image. But for that brand to be sustainable, it must be backed up by its product. A brand is really a promise.”

But how the Caribbean will pay for the campaign — estimated at $60 million annually or the amount that Jamaica spends on marketing its blue mountains as a Caribbean destination — remains to be decided.

Leaders have left the decision up to the regional council of trade ministers, who now must decide how much each of 20 Caribbean countries will contribute to $21 million. Tourism officials plan to raise the rest by reaching out to hotels, the cruise industry and possibly the Spanish-speaking Caribbean nations and the U.S. territories.

”What we are saying is there is great value in preserving and projecting brand Caribbean….The Caribbean of course embraces a number of other destinations some of whom have very little brand recognition,” Jamaica Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said.

This is not the first time the Caribbean has attempted such an ambitious plan. They tried twice before and failed. But now there is a desire, global urgency and even a website — http://www.onecaribbeantourism.com — say officials.

”The reality of this situation now dictates that they stay together; by themselves they can’t,” Bartlett said.

Bahamas Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette agreed. His country, just off the shores of Florida, holds the tourism portfolio within the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) bloc.

”You are getting a greater buying power, a larger diversity of markets that you can get into. And even with the regional branding each country in the Caribbean would be able to maintain their own brand within the overall branding,” he said.

One decision that leaders failed to come up with is a strategic plan for inter-island travel, an issue that has taken on even greater urgency after American Airline announced recently that it was cutting back flights to the region from its Puerto Rico hub.

”What is going on in Puerto Rico is of major concern to us. That is really our achilles heel at this point,” Chastanet said. “There isn’t anything that we have that can replace the Puerto Rico hub immediately.”

The difficulties of regional travel was strikling clear at the gathering. One prime minister arrived via private plane because it was faster and less of a hassle than flying through Miami then to Puerto Rico then to Antigua. Meanwhile, another government minister lamented that he was tired and wanted to go home but had to wait until Thursday because there was no flight Wednesday.

”This particular crisis is more serious than any other that have hit us in recent times,” Philip Saunders, CEO of Trinidad-based Caribbean Airlines, said of the airline industry’s challenge.

Saunders along with Mark Darby, who heads 51-year-old LIAT airlines, both sat side-by-side during the closed door discussions on how to address tourism and transportation woes in the region. Though he said it was too premature to discuss a possible merger between his airlines and Caribbean Airlines as some have suggested, he said he was open to the idea of working more closely.

In fact leaders stressed the need for ”functional cooperation” between the two carriers, which would involved better coordination of schedules, accepting of each other’s tickets and baggage and making connections easier between islands.

”One of the main challenges we face are the additional taxes and charges that are put on top of our airfares,” said Darby, who is pushing for island-nations to do-away with the taxes and fees. “It’s a big additional cost that I think is really holding back transportation and people’s demand for flying.”

Darby said LIAT, which is owned primarily by St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados, operates 150 daily flights in the region and after years of losing money, it finally turned a profit last year.

This year, however, he said the airline is just trying to break even with fuel prices going from $2.75 at Christmas to $4.30 a gallon.

”Our message is one, we are here to help. We’ve got the capacity [and] we can provide a solution to the problems the region faces,” he said.

Rob on
July 7th, 2008 6:34 pm

This expansion of the runway is clearly for the new Aruban astronaut program – and we said it couldn’t be done.

We’ll just keep callin’ them Arubanuts!

Pentimento on
November 26th, 2008 1:09 pm

Wow, just because something was made safer does not mean that it was initially unsafe. Most new cars have side airbags to make them safer. You’d all better sell your older cars and replace them immediaitely with a new model. Your car is unsafe. You are allowing haterd for a place mot of you have probably never visted to temper your ideals.

What happened to Natalee Holloway was disgusting. The investigation certainly appears bungled, especially to outsiders with different laws. Right now there are 21 missing children in Alabama, none of whom have Greta Van Sustern or Nancy Grace as an advocate. According to our State Department, the crime rate in Aruba is one of the lowest in the world. There are almost three thousand missing children currently in the United States. I wonder how many of those investigations were bungled. Do you know any of their names? Aruba has had one. Only one. yes, that is right, one. Before you leap into the chasm of righteous indignation, one is the correct number. All the tales of white slavery are just that, tales. Their is no veracity to them, whatsoever.

As far as the runways are concerned, Aruba has always complied with ICAO and FAA rules, or US carriers would not fly there. I have no connection to the island. I have vacationed there. It was wonderful. Unfortunately the bUSh economy will affect every tourist destination, and probably Aruba even more. Ironically, you will get your wish. I suppose you don’t care how many families that may affect.